Canted coil springs have a wide range of applications in many fields, for example, in medical devices, analytical instruments, industrial equipment, wind solar power devices, green technology, and in various aerospace and automotive applications. Furthermore, aside from the mechanical locking and connecting capabilities that canted coil spring applications provide, other properties of canted coil springs are utilized, among which are electrical conductivity. One general limitation of electrically conductive canted coil spring mechanisms is their range of effective operating temperatures.
Most electrically conductive materials consist of copper alloys or aluminum-type alloys because of the high degree of conductivity. However, most materials with high electrical conductivity have a relatively low melting point, resulting in limited temperature resistance. As a result, a problem that typically arises is the tendency for electrically conductive canted coil springs, that is, springs made of copper alloys or aluminum-type alloys, to lose a significant portion of their mechanical properties at high temperatures, causing the locking mechanism or the electrical contact to become less effective or fail altogether. The decrease in strength limits the force that can be applied to electrically conductive canted coil springs, thereby also limiting the use of these canted coil springs in certain applications, especially those applications that require withstanding high mechanical forces in environments with elevated temperatures. Furthermore for electrical contact applications, the low heat resistance of a copper or aluminum alloy contact spring can result in stress relaxation thereby reducing the electrical contact interface stress between the spring and related contact elements.
Most copper alloys operate at temperatures up to approximately 210 degrees Celsius, or 410 degrees Fahrenheit, before the mechanical properties of the alloys begin to degrade. Therefore, the use of traditional electrically conductive canted coil springs in environments continually at or above those temperature ranges is limited. For example, in automotive applications, under-the-hood temperatures generally hover around the order of 210 degrees Celsius, which can cause properties of traditional conductive materials to diminish and not perform as designed. Furthermore, since a spring used as an electrical contact will heat up depending on the electrical current passing through it, the spring can undergo stress relaxation even when the operating environment is not as severe.